Total value of deals conducted at the Iran Energy Exchange reached 537 trillion rials ($3.35 billion) during the last fiscal year that ended on March 19.
The amount was up 171 trillion rials ($1 billion) compared to the year before to post 30% growth, according to IRENEX website.
Diesel, gasoline, liquefied natural gas, raffinate, electricity, heavy crude oil, solvent 402 (white spirit), solvent 503, heavy oil cut and heavy naphtha were among products sold in the energy bourse.
Spot market of IRENEX accounted for majority of the deals. Value of spot market deals amounted to 374 trillion rials ($2.1 billion) last year.
Spot market deals were handled by 62 brokerage firms while 36 brokers focused on derivatives. About 38% of the deals were handled by the top five brokerages.
The main brokers were Mofid Securities Company, Pars Ideh Boyan Brokerage Company, Pasargad Bank Brokerage Company, Razavi Brokerage Company and Saham Khobregan Brokerage Company.
In terms of volume, IRENEX hosted trade of 6.77 million tons of commodity which mainly included various petroleum products and petrochemicals.
The volume of traded commodities showed 124% increase compared with a year earlier to record the highest annual growth in the past five years, according to the Persian-language economic newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad.
The daily ascribed the growth in value and volume of deals to increase in offers and improvement in trade mechanisms.
The initiative to sell surplus fuel produced by domestic refineries in the international ring of IRENEX was the main driver of volume growth.
Last summer, the government started offering surplus gasoline and diesel on the energy bourse. Neighboring states, where fuel prices are much higher than in Iran, were the main buyers.
While a similar move to export crude oil through IRENEX failed to produce the desired results, the government’s move to offer gasoline and diesel on the energy market has so far been successful.
The move to trade gasoline via IRENEX started after oil officials announced Iran’s gasoline production had surpassed domestic demand and the nation has reached self-sufficiency in producing the key fuel that apparently has more buyers in foreign markets.
As reported earlier, the government often failed to find buyers for its crude oil on offer to potential domestic and foreign buyers, despite several attempts to sweeten regulations and ease conditions for crude oil sales on IRENEX.
Crude oil sale on IRENEX had started after the government decided to involve private companies in and outside the country in the key oil industry.
However, except for one initial transaction in the early offerings, most subsequent oil offers fell flat. According to IRENEX, only 1.1 million barrels of crude has been sold since the program started in October 2018.
